7 Tips to Pick & Keep the Perfect Christmas Tree

11/21/2012 5:03PM

Learn how to choose the perfect Christmas tree and keep it alive from Thanksgiving to the New Year. WSJ Off Duty puts some popular questions - penny in the water? Drill a hole in the trunk? -- to a professional New York tree farmer. With MarketWatch reporter Kelli Grant.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... I ... twenty people by the Christmas tree plight after Thanksgiving ... the last few years so how do you avoid brown needles all over the floor ... where pyramid on par with the five victory arms in ... New York ... he and his wife in ... treatment are back here on him for some twenty years ... we talked Arctic about seven steps to take the perfect tree ... French policies ... each of ... the first thing to do is to call around and ice out your tree ... figure out what size tree does he want this to fit your space ... and then asked what the pricing is going to be on the receipt resellers usually use one in two formats eager to flat rate for the tree ... with a price that were commonly by the flight ... next figure out which species of trees right for you here over thirty species that are great for Christmas trees in one of the most popular is the preacher for the phrases have different branches ... have been ... content to nail hole that ... the one ... that ended with Islam ... family much learned acute Telefónica drawn to ... the meal retention ... everybody who are ... the reason for the ... true they grow ... quicker ... the ... drug to ... treat he'll take the drought ... he ... and these are all things that ... that free will ... where you live in Chile tree farm might not be an option you can actually find some pretty interesting tree deals on line ... Sears and Target both sell fresh cut tree is ... in a number of tree growers do it well even if you are going to a tree farm or a tree stand ... looking on line can also help the deals we seen a lot of ... daily deal sites that put up half price vouchers for some industry stands ... to seventy eight rehearse offer coupons as well ... it's good to look for a full tree but you should own one now just because it has a few gaps that Sri get creative ... don't you can tune in certain areas ... this would still be a very good tree for Saturday full boil take this through the court has had a nice shape ... when you put ornaments then you don't see any of that and ... it's also important to know how much room you have in your home most people buy itching to big city areas ... that they have ... to change color to why both ... annual and then presumably a trunk it's pretty straight to to make sure that that's easy to understand that important with the with the modern spins that they have it you can adjust them and put it in the ... trunk ... now I am I perfect tree ... I ... I ... it's time for the hard part cutting it down ... sth to know what we do we'll tumor ... maybe it's time to pilot the professional takeover ... sch sch ... your old nonsense ... one day the ... lady ... still the deal ... so either you have it folks we have an eighty year old who was showing me up that tree cutting I heard that when you're testing treatments non ... fresh cut the lead of August and are sending the panelists seemed ... like it to cut the branch and see if it ... then versus breaks that that's a pretty good indication of reform that would be fairer and ... more to it and that's ... don't try to ... so if we were to be buying a tree and a lot as opposed to coming here and when you do make sure it's fresh air in the euro currency how many of those needles are contend ... and on ... road you can stand upright ... and infinity if there's anything coming off that at that point all I know a lot ... coming off ... to know like new round of whom shedding through ... one should treat type immediately sends out SAP to heal the wound this layer needs to be removed so that recommence or water ... if you're getting ... entry farm or in a tree stand and at what point do we say we need them to cut a little more off the trunk or that I should tell Warhol if you were born ... the stain and when they were pre cut ... and basically ... you would want them to arrest them to ... cut it for you ... he refuted putting in more than half an hour ... we want them to come in and take off while another ... half an inch or so depending or ... three days ... and under the tree ... so we've heard about the things that you might wanna due to the bottom of the trunks scoring and drilling a hole ... this Nenad actually useful ... a lot of stay and have a piece of metal ... that sticks up you go to drill a hole in the middle of the street ... to that mail tied for ... the intrusion will fit into the tree ... is it worth it just play anything on that read or even to keep it ... was sure I entered retain the needles there's that word for ... it in my opinion is not worth it to put ... them in use for these products on the tree ... you dilute the fragrant of the street and to listen to what you have to do ... don't like something light relied for you can go ... as you suggested ... putting things in there ... Porter wanted to be worth the that's that's ... that's what we recommend ... make sure it never runs out of water ... I'd I know that that's what happens who or ... what I noticed a cushion ... with me ... this is Kelli Grant for The Wall Street Journal digital